Frostbite Sailors Look to Enjoy Warmer Weather This Saturday

With just two weeks left in the season, Courageous is looking to continue our string of great race days with 5+ races per day. The weather is looking gorgeous! Temps will be in the mid 40s, sunny, with a steady breeze around 10 knots from the NW. I look forward to seeing you all out there on the nicest day we will have this week!

Last week, our own Judy Krimski shared her experiences at the ISA Laser Masters clinic in Mexico. (She will be back this Saturday to tell us all about it.) For this week, a bit of a lesson that I find myself re-learning and re-teaching over and over again: mast bend. I think it is a good topic for discussion because as I look out my window here I notice some back-stays are still cranked on, and last week was not that windy. Understanding that a boat is essentially a weird looking airplane turned on its side and submerged in water can be a helpful and necessary first step in learning the fundamentals of how to tune your boat for maximum speed and point. In the spirit of working smarter, not harder, I direct you to a wonderful Sailing World article on the subject: http://www.sailingworld.com/racing/bend-speed . And as far as "tuning guides" are concerned, I usually start by making things look pretty, then adjust based on what feels right and what the more experienced guys in the class say they do. In my personal experience, buying a guy a beer and asking him about his rig tune is a wonderful way to make friends and improve boat speed.